Meet The Fockers -- meets with disappointment

Don't worry -- no real spoilers about the movie in this review.

Few movies have I anticipated more than Meet The Fockers -- the sequel to the 2000 hit Meet the Parents. It could have been a contenda. After all, it had so many of the right ingredients.

1) The return to screen of La Streisand as Roz Focker (brilliant name!) -- Babs finally just acting and not directing herself. Not that I don't think she's a talented director -- I'd love to see her direct a movie she isn't in or like this, act in a movie she isn't directing. While Prince of Tides is one of my favorite movies of all time, The Mirror Has Two Faces was one of the worst. Seeing Barbra simply act was a ton of fun, and she is without a doubt the best thing about this movie.

2) The reunion of sorts of Blythe Danner and Babs. While they never shared an acting scene in Prince of Tides, Barbra did direct her. Their scenes are very cute. And anything with Blythe is made more wonderful.

3) Heavyweights like Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman -- but Dustin was just so over-the-top and cringe-worthy. Towards the end, it felt like DeNiro was trying to match him.

Frankly, if there had been a camera on ME while I was watching this film, you'd have sworn I was seeing a horror flick. Often I had my hands up in front of my eyes to protect me from this movie. While there are genuine laugh out loud moments (Barbra's entrance evoking The Main Event was hysterical), they are far outweighed by the cringe-inducing discomfort and... blasphemy of all blasphemies for a movie -- boring scenes that populate this sequel. All in all, rent What's Up Doc? and you'll be a much more satisfied movie watcher.